Why we need to sing, expressively!

When I graduated high school, I felt like a pretty big fish in our little pond.  I went off to college with quite a confident ego.  It took a very short time before I realized how much I didn’t know and how inadequate I was.  My piano teacher asked me to choose a piece to study for the semester.  I chose the saddest Chopin etude I could find!  Woe is me! I would sit and wallow and play in the practice room, licking my wounds.  Sounds kind of melodramatic and silly and yet, I think it is so cool that I could find music to express how I felt.  It helped desensitize myself to my predicament and kept me on the path to musical growth.  Obviously I recovered!

This brings me to something I have learned about the Yamaha curriculum.  One component is Lyric Singing.  It is also called Expressive Singing.

  I used to think these terms were interchangeable, but over time I have realized just how important the concept of expressive singing is.  As children develop, discovering and labeling feelings is the gradual mastery of our lives.  Remember the baby who screams when he/she is hungry.  What is that frightening feeling?  Ah, think of that little two year old who now goes to the pantry and says, “I want a cookie papa”.  Over the years our children learn names of more feelings, angry, happy, sad, frustrated to named a few.  Once you know what that feeling is, it doesn’t have to control everything you do.  You can choose!

Yamaha has incorporated these growing feelings into their Lyric Songs.  The first one in Music Wonderland is Please Shake Hands with Me Mom.  It’s a warm, loving song that ends with a hug!  What a great celebration of how we feel about our children and how much they love and depend on us.  In JAC there is a wonderful song “Talk to Me.”  It’s a celebration of best friends.

“When you talk to me Oh so patiently,

Face to face we share our thoughts and feelings.

Then I talk to you. You’re a friend so true

And I know that we’ll be friends the whole way through.

I think it is amazing how detailed the planning is in our courses.  Research has shown us that music is at the very core of who we are.  It’s in the deepest, oldest part of the human brain.  It truly expresses who we are as individuals and even more so, helps us to connect with others.  In our world right now, we need all the tools we can muster to help us become caring, loving, productive human beings.  So let’s get started.  Let’s sing!